


the clock stopped ticking forever ago

by HopeStoryteller



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Hatsune Miku AU, I know how crazy is that, Royal Advisor AU, for once I'm not writing PK as a bastard, or I guess the formal name, the AU is not mine! it is Bell's and there will be a link in the end notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-27 07:35:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30119358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeStoryteller/pseuds/HopeStoryteller
Summary: So. The Radiance may have made a few miscalculations, in her carefully laid plans to utterly destroy the Pale Wyrm and everything he ever loved.Fuck.
Relationships: The Pale King & The Radiance (Hollow Knight)
Comments: 22
Kudos: 52





	the clock stopped ticking forever ago

**Author's Note:**

  * For [idiotjuicyy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/idiotjuicyy/gifts).



So. The Radiance  _ may _ have made a few miscalculations, in her carefully laid plans to utterly destroy the Pale Wyrm and everything he ever loved.

Threatening him? It worked  _ great. _ Better, even. He hasn’t slept in days. The Wyrm is quaking in his (likely metaphorical) boots, as he  _ should _ after what he did. Evidently, no one ever taught him not to take things that don’t belong to him—and so it falls to the Radiance to make sure he  _ learns. _

Except there’s a slight problem.

_ Starting _ the Infection has gone perfectly, as well. A few minds nudged just a bit too far here and there, a few bugs waking up with orange in their eyes until they stopped waking up at all. With that taken care of, she decided to strike a little closer to home. Specifically: with the Wyrm’s precious little Pale Court.

Except  _ there _ is the problem.

The Wyrm’s precious little Pale Court is fucking  _ hilarious. _ She’s barely skimmed the surface, but she doesn’t even  _ need _ to go much deeper. There are no less than three separate assassination plots concerning various nobles, two of which will be targeting each other. Some spiteful little bug is quietly compiling blackmail on every single member of the Pale Court, and  _ oh _ is there  _ so much blackmail. _ Lord So-And-So slept with Lord Such-And-Such, oh, the  _ horror! _

So. Perhaps the Infection can wait a little bit. At least until the Radiance sees how that one  _ extremely _ passive-aggressive feud turns out.

Except what was meant to be a few days, a week at most, becomes several. And then months. And then suddenly the Radiance realizes it has been nearly a  _ year _ since her threat to the Pale Wyrm, and perhaps she should do something about that. She  _ had _ been planning to infect his court.

But how can she  _ now? _ While knowledge of her Infection seems to have been kept as quiet as possible by the Wyrm, the court has only gotten more  _ ridiculous— _ and  _ hilarious. _ A couple of unwanted children have eloped and yet somehow snuck back into the court under their parents noses. Lady Emilitia  _ continues _ to compile her blackmail dossier, ranging from the innocuous (Lurien the Watcher writes surprisingly good poetry) to the quite damning (Lurien the Watcher writes surprisingly good poetry concerning himself and the Pale Wyrm leading a domestic life together far beyond Hallownest.) 

How can regular bugs be so… oh, she doesn’t know. Fascinating, perhaps. Maybe she  _ can _ understand the Pale Wyrm, to an extent.

But that brings her back to her problem.

She  _ did _ kind of threaten all this to destruction. And far be it from the Radiance to not finish what she starts. But she’ll never again be able to quietly snicker over the next installment in Lurien the Watcher’s ongoing saga of what could never happen,  _ unless. _ She’ll never again be able to raise an eyebrow at the newest addition to Emilitia’s dossier. She’ll never again be able to quietly cheer for the two star-crossed lovers who took the impossible circumstances they were born into and made them  _ work. _

...her _ dammit, _ she’s gone and gotten attached. She  _ should _ just wipe it all away, and bring Hallownest to ruin like she intended.

But.

_ But. _

She kind of can’t  _ now, _ can she? And so, under a mortal guise, she slips into his palace under cover of darkness, slipping through the night in a manner that no goddess of light should be capable of, but she didn’t spend the past year watching this place for  _ nothing _ now did she? She finds the Pale Wyrm, eventually, in what appears to be some sort of workshop. Tinkering with… okay, that’s new.

“I  _ do _ hope that is not Void,” she blurts, and derives some small amount of satisfaction from the way he drops the vial of black goo. It falls to the floor and shatters on impact, and the Wyrm actually  _ hisses _ as some of it lands on his not-booted feet.

He leaps back, turning as he does. “What—who are you? What are you doing here? How did you—”

“I think you know who I am,  _ Pale Wyrm,” _ the Radiance says, and she watches what little color there is in his face drain quite rapidly. “As for what I am doing here: I changed my mind!”

The Wyrm stares. “What.”

“I  _ changed my mind,” _ the Radiance repeats. “Or do I have to use smaller words for your simple little mind, no bigger than you are tall.”

“I. Heard you the first time,” he stammers. “You… changed your mind.”

“Yes. That  _ is _ what I have been saying, is it not?”

“You can’t just… do that! You can’t change your mind  _ now!” _

“Well, I did,” the Radiance says breezily. “Aren’t you going to ask what prompted my sudden change in heart?”

“...I suppose I must, now.” Idly, the Wyrm grabs for a towel and gets to mopping up the spill of what is probably Void. 

The Radiance actually  _ laughs. _ Part of it is at what a fool he is, to not already  _ know. _ Part of it is at the image before her of a self-proclaimed king wiping up the black stain like he’s nothing at all. “Do you have any  _ idea _ what your court is like?”

“I… what?” The Wyrm looks more confused than anything else. “Not particularly, no. I try to stay away from that as much as I can. Why do you ask?”

“You’re actually more foolish than you look, if  _ that _ is your approach to them. There is  _ so much going on _ at any given time. It is, I have to admit,  _ quite _ amusing.”

“So… you are not going through with the Infection,” he says slowly.

“No, I suppose not. How could I destroy something so  _ entertaining?” _

“Ah.” The Wyrm raises his hands to look at them. They are stained black—so his tinkering with forces that are not to be messed with is not, in fact, new. Fool. “Then… then it was all for nothing.” 

“Then…  _ what _ was all for nothing?”

The Wyrm does not answer. He continues to stare down at his hands, as if seeing something that is no longer there, and completely ignoring the Radiance—something she very much does not appreciate. She waves a wing in front of his face.

He does not react, for a long moment—and then he crumples to the floor.

* * *

When the Wyrm comes to, he curls in on himself, and away from the Radiance. His shoulders start to shake. Is he—

Is he  _ crying? _

“Do I…  _ want _ to know what was all for nothing?” She asks hesitantly. 

He only starts sobbing harder. Eventually, an answer comes: “...no…”

“Okay,” the Radiance says. “Unfortunately for you, now I’m curious. Could you at least get off the floor? I’d like to not be held responsible if someone comes in and thinks I attacked you.”

The Wyrm glares at her, but does so. He takes a seat on a bench, looking away. Eventually, he mumbles, “No one would come. I am not to be disturbed here.”

“Oh.” The Radiance blinks. “Why couldn’t you have told me this when I actually wanted to kill you?”

“Ah,” the Wyrm says, “I… believe you may have answered your own question.” 

He seems to have regained his composure, somewhat. Though it does not escape the Radiance’s notice that there are tearstains on his mask— _ if _ that is a mask. Now she isn’t actually sure.

“That one, yes. Now, Pale Wyrm:  _ what did you do?” _

“I…” He bows his head. “After this, you  _ will _ likely wish to kill me again. And if you truly no longer are set on Infection… then what I did was for nothing, and I will deserve it.”

“Just tell me,” the Radiance says wearily.

And he does. To his credit, he doesn’t start sobbing again  _ immediately. _

**Author's Note:**

> once again: au is NOT MINE! it is bells! the hatsune miku/royal advisor au belongs to bell, and a summary can be found [here!](https://idiotjuicyy.tumblr.com/post/643300197334663168/a-brief-pfft-thats-a-lie-this-is-gonna-be)
> 
> happy birthday bell! hope you enjoy -3-


End file.
